Argentine court sentences 48 in 'Dirty War' trial
An Argentine court sentenced 48 former military personnel to prison on Wednesday for involvement in so-called "death flights" and other crimes committed at a notorious torture center when a junta ruled the country.
The trial is part of an effort to probe torture and crimes against humanity committed at the ESMA Naval Mechanics School. Only a fraction of an estimated 5,000 opponents of the regime, which ruled from 1976-1983, survived being sent there.
Twenty-nine people were handed life sentences, 19 received sentences of between eight and 25 years, and six were acquitted.
Among those who received life were Mario Daniel Arru and Alejandro Domingo D'Agostino, two ex-pilots convicted of involvement in "death flights" in which people were killed by being thrown out of airplanes into the Rio de la Plata or the sea.
Victims of the flights include French nuns Alice Domon and Leonie Duquet, who were abducted and killed along with founders of the humanitarian organization Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in December 1977.
The remains of Duquet and three of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo were found on Argentina's Atlantic coast and buried in a nearby cemetery. Domon's remains were never recovered.
Alfredo Astiz, known as the "Blond Angel of Death," and Jorge Acosta, nicknamed "The Tiger," also received life.
Some 30,000 people were kidnapped, tortured and killed in what became known as Argentina's "Dirty War," according to rights groups.
Among other crimes, Astiz and Acosto were accused of the 1977 disappearance of Swedish citizen Dagmar Hagelin, who was 17 years old.
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